Junagadh (Saurashtra),  Congress MLA from the Visavadar constituency Harshadkumar Ribadiya on Wednesday claimed that the ruling BJP had offered him a huge amount to switch sides before the 2017 Rajya Sabha elections.

"I was offered Rs 40 crore by the ruling party to resign as MLA and switch sides before the Rajya Sabha elections in 2017. When I refused the offer then, why should I quit the party now?" he stated.

His statement comes in response to Gujarat Congress In-charge Raghu Sharma's remark: "I know who is going to quit the party."

Ribadiya said such rumours are very common when elections are around but he is not going to quit.

He is not the only Patidar MLA to come out with such clarification, on June 24, Dhoraji MLA Lalit Vasoya too had clarified that he is not quitting the party. Vasoya issued a clarification because he is considered to be close to PAAS leader Hardik Patel and had got Congress ticket in 2017 general elections because of him.

After joining the BJP, Hardik had claimed that many more leaders and MLAs will quit the party before Assembly elections.

In the past, Congress leaders had claimed that the ruling party is luring their leaders and MLAs with financial offers or party posts and that is the reason that some 17 sitting MLAs have switched sides.